X-Men: TOG is an average game. Not the disaster one might believe it could have been, but not as good as it ought to be.
X-Men: The Official Game is set between the ending of the 2nd movie X2 and the upcoming X3: The Last Stand. The game is purposed to fill the holes between both movies, as well as why Nightcrawler does not appear in X3. X-Men: The Official Game concentrates on three of the X-Men only, who are Wolverine, Iceman and Nightcrawler. Each character has its unique gameplay style, whereas Wolverine is just bam'n'slash, Nightcrawler on stealth (but is actually the stronger fighter in the game) and Iceman can only travel on a icepath, which is really cool and enjoyable. There is not much freedom in X-Men: The Official Game... it's pretty much about pressing the H,J and K keys in a timely fashion. There is about 2-3 combos per character, so it's not really about strategy... the gameplay approaches an arcade style more than anything.
Camera angles are often a problem in those type of games but it isn't for X-Men: The Official Game. You can have a full 3D view and rotate with the mouse or arrow keys in the direction you chose. Wolverine's probably the most boring character to play as all he can do is jump around and slash. The gameplay becomes a little more interesting (it's all very relative for those types of games...) with Nightcrawler and Iceman. Those stunts seen in X2 by the teleporter can be replicated with ease, and it's pretty darn cool ! Nightcralwer is arguably the strongest fighter in the game... his health bar and regeneration isn't great but if mastered correctly nightcrawler will never take a hit... ever. You just have to use the semicolon (;) target key, and then use the K key to teleport behind enemy to enemy, using either the J or L key to punch or L. Nightcrawler's combos are the most interesting, as he dispatches a group of ennemy amazingly fast.
Iceman's gameplay is also quite interesting. He moves on a constant icepath (automatically generated), which means you are free to move in any direction. Your main opponent in the campaing will be Pyro, chasing his fire raptors around. He got a cool icebeam, an ice shield and some "ice kolts", whuch is an ice projectice weapon. Using the targeting system (l-shift key) it's easy to shoot down targets... sometimes much too easy.
The evolution of the three characters is based on the level of difficulty of the level (you get to chose before each). Depending of the level (easy, average and hard) you get to unlock 1,2 or 3 genes per level in the particular area you want... for wolverine for example, you can unlock gene sequences for his health, brawling capabilities, precision, etc. It doesn't make much of a difference though, and you do not get additional powers, so although the system mechanism is original, its effects are left to be desired. Sometimes the fights can be pretty hard (especially for Wolverine) so at least, there's a challenge.
There is not much to say about the graphics other than that they're ok. The cliparts between each missions are original and fun to watch. The graphic engine is nothing too impressive, at least not compared to the latest hot games like Oblivion. The sounds on the other hand are a definite notch better, especially the voice-overs which were recorded by the actual actors of the movies. The music was taken from the original soundtrack, which is good as well. All-in-all the artistic side of X-Men: The Official Game is ok, much better than any previous X-Men games I have played in the past (Apocalypse as well.)
Unfortunately, X-Men has its shares of frustrations. The replay value is quite poor, the levels are about all the same for each characters and the gameplay, although made interesting for Nightcrawler and Iceman, all comes to the same thing all the time... which is disabling switches, then killing a swarm of ennemies, rinse and repeat. Wolverine's campaing is just boring and isn't creative at all. It will definitely appeal to the X-Men fans, for it's insight of the movies or the short but fun gameplay of some characters. The game is pretty short (25 missions) which will be done fast. You get to unlock special content and missions by collecting Cerebro files and X-Men secret folders, which, althought not that great, does add a value to X-Men: The Official Game.
All-in-all X-Men: The Official Game is an average game. Not the disaster one might believe it could have been, but not as good as it ought to be. It's short lifetime might push the casual gamer to think again about the purchase, the X-Men fan surely, regardless of the reviews will buy it. X-Men: The Official Game has its moments and can certainly be entertaining, not not for a very long time.